BELL LABS AND EIGHT GONGS...

On Monday night, Bell Labs - eight Nobel gongs and counting - inaugurated its Israeli branch. It is the group’s first out-of-the-US location. The Alcatel-Lucent multinational communications firm now owns the organization. The Israel lab actually began work several months ago, but got its official kick-off when current president Marcus Weldon, along with other top Bell Labs officials and alumni, gave the Israel site their official stamp of approval.
It is a near cert that some Staten Island *Italian bloke first invented the idea of sending a voice down a copper wire and it was nicked by Mr Bell - who happened to be on the committee who was assessing it's potential. But hey, let's not spoil the party.

*Antonio Meucci

Bibliography Meucci, Sandra. 

Antonio and the Electric Scream: 

"The Man Who Invented the Telephone" 

Branden Books, Boston, 2010, ISBN 0-8283-2197-3